Chapter 90

Wei Yuan pointed to the line about the young master and asked: "Why is this person's head worth so much?"

The Daoist flipped through the booklet in his hand and said: "According to the regulations, an ordinary Dao foundation is one hundred, and then it doubles for each level of Earth-rank, Heaven-rank, and Immortal-rank, and doubles again for each stage of Foundation, Rebirth, and Nurturing Spirit. This young master was a Heaven-rank Dao foundation and had cultivated to Nurturing Spirit, so it was thirty-two times the base, totaling three thousand two hundred merit."

What a pity, the Liao young master only grew one head... Wei Yuan sighed in his heart.

Closing the booklet, the Daoist smiled and said: "If nothing unexpected happens, this Kanbida would surely have become a Dharma Form in the future. Come to think of it, being able to buy the life of a future Dharma Form for thirty thousand taels of immortal silver is not a loss at all."

Wei Yuan said: "Why is there so much merit for triggering internal strife?"

"This is no small matter; this event caused the entire war situation to change, so the True Persons weighed it and gave two thousand after deliberation."

The Primordial Palace's merit system has been in operation for thousands of years, and they have encountered all kinds of situations. By Wei Yuan's generation, it was already quite perfect, and every aspect would be taken into account. Fair merit is the foundation of the Primordial Palace, and it has been personally supervised by the Immortal Lord throughout the ages, allowing for not the slightest falsehood.

After Wei Yuan confirmed the merit, the Daoist put away the jade paper and handed over a booklet, saying: "This is the merit ranking for this great examination. Everyone's merit is on it, and it is updated every seven days. However, this booklet can only be updated within a thousand miles of the sect gate; it cannot be used beyond this range. In addition, it is also the total merit ranking for the Dao Foundation Realm, which will be activated once you return to the sect gate."

Wei Yuan took the booklet and opened it, seeing that he was currently ranked at the top, while the second place was Behind Bao Yun, whose merit was actually as high as over eight thousand. One must know that Wei Yuan had gone north alone for a thousand miles, killed the entire team of snow eagle riders in half a day, and killed the late-stage Dao Foundation young master Kanbida, only then gaining twelve thousand merit, yet Behind Bao Yun already had eight thousand at this time.

However, after a little reflection, Wei Yuan understood. Just in the battle where he reinforced Behind Bao Yun, Behind Bao Yun had mobilized all the friendly troops within a radius of several hundred miles, then firmly pinned the main force of nearly ten thousand Northern Liao iron cavalry under the fortress, and finally crippled the main force of the Agula tribe in the east of Bianning Commandery in one battle. Looking solely at the impact on the war situation, Behind Bao Yun's contribution was no less than Wei Yuan's. If it hadn't been for the young master's death triggering the internal strife of the Agula tribe, Wei Yuan's contribution to the overall war situation would actually have been far inferior to Behind Bao Yun's.

Behind Bao Yun had many experts and thousands of elite armored soldiers under her command, and most of the merit had to be distributed; even so, she still had eight thousand merit in the end, which shows how miserable the Liao tribe's losses were.

The third place on the list only had a little over two thousand, and further down were hundreds or tens. In fact, the great examination had only started a few days ago, and the vast majority of Dao Foundation cultivators were just small chess pieces on the battlefield, usually ending up like Wei Yuan on the first night, fighting a small patrol team.

After settling the merit, the Daoist left the room and stopped disturbing Wei Yuan. Only then did Wei Yuan have time to examine his newly forged Dao foundation.

His consciousness entered his sea of consciousness, and he looked at the vast and endless land, feeling at a loss for a moment. The Dao foundation had been forged for some time now, and Wei Yuan had looked at it more than once, but every time he stood on this boundless land, Wei Yuan still felt it was very unreal. Who could not even see their own Dao foundation in its entirety?

The land was vast and desolate, filled with broken stones and gravel, incomparably barren. Although the Dao foundation was named 'Ten Thousand Li of Heshan', it was only ten thousand li now, and the rivers and mountains were nowhere to be seen.

Wei Yuan leaned over and picked up a few broken stones, finding that they were just ordinary stones without the slightest spiritual anomaly. The ground was entirely made of such broken stones, and digging down, the gravel began to increase; deeper still was a solid rock stratum. Wei Yuan hooked his fingers into the rock crevices, trying to pry a piece off. He exerted force suddenly, and he succeeded in prying off a piece of rock, but at the same time, a sharp pain shot through his brain. Only then did Wei Yuan remember that this rock was actually his own Dao foundation; prying it off by force was equivalent to tearing a small piece off his own Primordial Spirit, so of course, it was painful beyond measure.

After inadvertently experiencing the pain of his Primordial Spirit being torn, Wei Yuan never dared to be clumsy with his hands again.

The land had not a shred of vitality, not even soil. Only a small mountain about a zhang high stood in the center of the continent, entirely emerald green, like flawless jade, revealing its miraculous nature.

This small jade mountain was the product of the eldest senior sister's tempering for ten years as one day. It looked small, but that was only in comparison to the entire continent; compared to others' Dao foundations, it was not like that at all.

Li Zhi's four-image three-legged cauldron was already considered tall and thick, eight feet high, looking similar to the jade mountain, but the jade mountain was solid and a zhang in circumference, much thicker than the four-image three-legged cauldron; the tempering consumed at least enough to temper seven or eight four-image three-legged cauldrons. If the jade mountain were forged into an ordinary flying sword, at least several hundred could be forged.

At the top of the jade mountain, there was still a point of exceptionally rich vitality gestating, which would sprout before long. Wei Yuan was very familiar with this vitality; it originated from the fruit Behind Bao Yun had given him. Could it be that a Seven-Marvel Treasure Tree would also grow on this mountain in the future? Wei Yuan was truly looking forward to it.

Although he had seen Behind Bao Yun's Seven-Marvel Treasure Tree in the Wan Xiangdian, those in the Wan Xiangdian were only simple images and a trace of divine charm, and the commentary was also very general. After all, it was an Immortal Foundation, so it wouldn't give specific abilities, and the image was also the initial state of the Dao foundation. But in the battle to reinforce Behind Bao Yun, Wei Yuan had seen with his own eyes the Seven-Marvel Treasure Tree sweeping away the yellow aura within dozens of li; although it was with the help of the formation's power, it was also a great divine ability, and the most useful divine ability on the battlefield, directly changing the battlefield environment.

Over the next day, Wei Yuan tried repeatedly, leaving his Primordial Spirit depleted, and finally figured out several abilities of his Dao foundation.

The first is 'Changing Heaven and Earth'. Like other Dao foundations, 'Ten Thousand Li of Heshan' can also be manifested, but with Wei Yuan's current Dao power, he can only manifest a very, very small part centered on the jade mountain, about a hundred zhang or so.

After manifestation, the heaven and earth environment within a hundred zhang centered on Wei Yuan will change, leaning toward the human pure domain. If he is still in the Liao territory, then there will be no yellow aura within a hundred zhang, which is equivalent to forcibly turning the Liao territory into a neutral region. At first glance, 'Changing Heaven and Earth' looks somewhat similar to Behind Bao Yun's Seven-Marvel Treasure Tree, but the actual mechanism is completely different.

The Seven-Marvel Treasure Tree relies on pure energy to wash away and forcibly disperse the yellow aura of the Liao territory, somewhat similar to using a strong water current to wash away mud and sand, while simultaneously suppressing and injuring the Liao people within the range. 'Changing Heaven and Earth', on the other hand, reverses the nature of heaven and earth within the range; although it is not as powerful as the Seven-Marvel Treasure Tree, it is more thorough and more lasting.

!.

This ability is truly extraordinary. When fighting against foreign tribes, once the opponent enters within a hundred zhang of Wei Yuan, it is equivalent to entering a neutral region from the Liao territory, with no heaven and earth power to borrow, and their strength is directly reduced by twenty percent!

Then, within ten zhang of Wei Yuan, it will become a human pure domain; after the foreign tribes get close, their strength will be reduced by another twenty percent, while the human soldiers' strength will be bolstered, increasing by twenty percent accordingly.

If Wei Yuan leads a human unit to encounter Liao barbarians of equal strength in the Liao territory, then under the blessing of 'Changing Heaven and Earth', the battle that was originally evenly matched will turn into a one-sided crushing due to the increase and decrease in strength.

(End of chapter)